Interviewing at Block can be an exciting yet nerve-wracking experience. As a leading financial technology company, Block has high standards when it comes to hiring top talent. With the right preparation, you can enter your Block interview with confidence, showcase your skills, and land the job.
This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to ace your Block interview across all roles, from software engineers to sales representatives. Read on to learn about Block’s interview format, commonly asked questions and tips for making a stellar impression.
Overview of the Block Interview Process
The Block interview process typically consists of 2-3 rounds:
Phone Screen – 30 minutes with a recruiter or hiring manager to review your resume and experience. Questions cover your background, interest in Block, salary expectations, and availability.
Technical Interview – 45-60 minutes, focused on your skills for engineering roles. For other roles, this covers core competencies like analytics, product knowledge, sales acumen, etc.
Manager Panel – 45-60 minutes with 2-3 managers. Dives deeper into your experience, problem solving, leadership potential and culture fit.
Some roles may also include an additional assignment like a presentation, mock sales call, or code pairing session. The process lasts 2-4 weeks from initial phone screen to offer. Mastering the interview questions and format is crucial for advancing each round.
Most Common Block Interview Questions
Here are the top Block interview questions you’re likely to encounter and tips for nailing your answers:
Tell me about yourself
This classic opener offers a chance to introduce your background and interest in Block in 2-3 minutes, Focus on your most relevant experience and skills, Share why you want to work for Block specifically,
Strong response: “I’m a product manager with 5 years experience building fintech platforms. I’m passionate about Block’s mission to democratize financial services. For example, my current role involves leading analytics to improve user experiences, which aligns well with Block’s data-driven culture.”
Why do you want to work for Block?
Demonstrate you’ve researched the company and are drawn to their vision, culture, leadership and products. Pick 1-2 unique reasons that excite you.
Strong response: “I’m motivated by Block’s philosophy around decentralized systems and empowering individuals financially. I also admire Jack Dorsey’s leadership and product vision. Additionally, Block’s global mindset matches my interest in making financial tools accessible across borders.”
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Share 2-3 relevant strengths aligned with the role’s top skills. For weaknesses, pick development areas applicable to the role but phrase them positively.
Strong response: “I’m a creative problem solver – I can synthesize data and find innovative solutions. Relationship-building is also a strong suit. In terms of growth areas, I’m working on prioritization skills since I sometimes take on too many projects at once. I’m learning to better manage my time and delegate.”
Why are you leaving your current job?
Keep this positive – do not bash your employer. Focus on seeking new challenges, growth opportunities, and why Block is the ideal next step for your goals.
Strong response: “I’ve learned a tremendous amount at my current company but I’m ready to take on more responsibility in a senior level position. Block offers the chance to manage a larger team and work on global scale products. I’m also excited by Block’s rapid growth in new markets.”
What are Block’s top competitors?
Demonstrate you grasp Block’s landscape and competitive space. A few major players are PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Coinbase. Mention how Block maintains advantages.
Strong response: “Top competitors include other fintech giants like PayPal and Stripe in the digital payments space, and Coinbase for crypto. However, Block stands apart through its global brand recognition, massive user base, and ability to expand into new financial verticals quickly.”
How would you improve Block’s products?
This shows your strategic thinking and ability to innovate. Share 1-2 feasible improvements such as enhancing mobile features, integrating new cryptos, or tapping new verticals like loans.
Strong response: “I would improve the connecting payments capabilities across platforms – for example, enabling users to seamlessly pay Block Bots on other messaging apps using Block Pay. I would also expand partnerships with credit card companies to lower transfer fees.”
Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem
Pull an example that demonstrates analytical skills, creative problem solving, technical acumen, leadership, perseverance or other traits the role requires. Focus on your process.
Strong response: “When our mobile app launch kept getting delayed, I pulled our cross-functional product, design and engineering teams together to identify the bottlenecks. I worked closely with UX leads to prioritize key app functionality and made changes to the engineering sprints. We launched a pared down but stable MVP within the new timeline and saw strong adoption.”
What questions do you have for us?
Ask thoughtful questions that show your understanding of Block’s goals and that you’re envisioning yourself in the role. Inquire about challenges, growth opportunities, team initiatives, leadership’s priorities, or company culture.
Strong questions: “What are the most important goals your team wants to accomplish this year?” “How does the culture support innovation and new ideas?” “What success in the first 90 days looks like.”
Tips for Acing Your Block Interview
Prep is the key to shining in your Block interview. Here are some top strategies to implement:
Research the role, team, and Block products in-depth – Learn key initiatives, metrics, tech stack details, user personas, and competitive landscape. Check Glassdoor and LinkedIn for intel.
Practice answering common questions aloud until responses flow naturally. Time yourself. Get feedback from colleagues.
Develop 5-6 stories that highlight your top achievements, technical acumen, leadership impact, analytical thinking, problem solving, collaboration skills, etc. Adapt stories to behavioral interview questions.
Prepare smart questions to ask each interviewer to show engagement and thoughtfulness.
Re-read job description – Be ready to explain how you are a fit for every top requirement. Review your resume as well.
Brush up on technical skills if required – eg coding concepts, SQL, statistics, etc.
Get a good night’s sleep beforehand and eat a healthy breakfast to fuel up brainpower. Bring water, notebook, pens, and hard copies of your resume.
Dress professionally – avoid distracting colors or loud prints. Stick to traditional business attire even for remote interviews.
Set up a professional interview backdrop if virtual. Use a clean, quiet room with good lighting. Check video and audio.
Arrive 10 minutes early to get settled for in-person interviews. For phone/video, login 5 minutes early.
Introduce yourself clearly and confidently at the start. Make steady eye contact and engage all interviewers.
Ask for clarification if you don’t understand a question. It’s better to take a moment to think than answer immediately if you’re unsure.
Send tailored thank you notes within 24 hours re-affirming your interest and fit.
Prepping responses, researching Block, practicing your delivery, and following up professionally will prove you have the skills, knowledge, and dedication to excel in the role. With these tips, you can put your best foot forward and win at your Block interview. Good luck!
Common Square Interview Questions
Below are common questions that interviewers from Square ask on our platform. The questions we used may not be exactly the same as those asked in real interviews since our data comes from practice interviews.
Step 2: Technical Phone Screen
Square’s technical phone screen lasts about an hour. In rare cases, they will let very senior candidates skip this step. In this interview, you’ll pair with your interviewer on a coding problem in CoderPad.
After this round is over, your recruiter will give you general feedback on how you did, no matter what happens (e g. , you might get feedback about your coding speed, your attention to detail, and so on).
The onsite at Square consists of 4-5 sessions, depending on the role and experience level of the candidate. Most of the interviews, except for the hiring manager interview and the coding rounds, are two-person panels. If you’re a mid to senior-level engineer, you can expect the onsite to look something like this:
- Coding (2 hours)
- System design (1 hour)
- (For L6+) Leadership interview (1 hour)
- Hiring manager interview (30 minutes)
Square’s onsite includes two separate 1-hour coding interviews, conducted in CoderPad.
This round is conducted by a two-person panel.
This round is conducted by a panel of two very senior engineers (both will be L6 and above).
This is a call with a hiring manager from the team you’d be working on. For more junior engineers, it usually takes the form of a “Teach me something technical”. For more senior engineers, it’s usually a deep-dive into a relevant project you’ve worked on in the past.
How to Answer Teacher Interview Questions | Reading and Math Block | Kathleen Jasper
FAQ
What are the 5 C’s of interviewing?
What are the 3 C’s of interviewing?
What are the building blocks of interview questions?
What questions can you legally not ask in an interview?
What is the interview process like at block?
I interviewed at Block Most of the interview was pretty standard, coding screen and then onsite with coding, systems design, and behavioral interviews. Since I interviewed for a security software position, they asked after the onsite for an additional security systems interview, which was a bit unprofessional to tack on at the end after the onsite.
What’s the point of a question block?
It is also helpful if you want to randomize a group of questions (but be warned page breaks don’t work with question randomization). Another funny thing to know about blocks is that you can’t use the back button to go from one block back to the former block.
How do I filter interviews?
To filter interviews, Sign In or Register. Lengthy with lots of down time between responses. Take home exercise that took way too much time to complete and felt like I was giving away free consulting. Didn’t even get to speak with the hiring manager before the exercise, only the recruiter. I applied online. I interviewed at Block
